NASHVILLE — Over the weekend, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele ventured into Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams’ backyard in upper East Tennessee and pledged to oust Williams next year. The Kingsport Times-News quoted Steele as saying: “I got a bull’s eye right on his back and we’re taking him out.” Williams is the second-term legislator and Elizabethton restaurateur who stunned fellow Tennessee Republicans when he joined the House’s 49 Democrats in voting for himself for speaker Jan. 13 to defeat his own Republican Caucus’ nominee. For that, the Tennessee Republican Party declared he was no longer a member of the...

Republican House member Brian Kelsey, who e-mailed an ethics complaint Wednesday afternoon to fellow House member Kent Williams, says he knew of sexual harassment complaints against Williams two years ago but declined to make them public out of respect for the alleged victim’s privacy. After seeing Rep. Susan Lynn’s name published Tuesday, though, Kelsey says he decided to e-mail his complaint to Williams and the media, even though there is no formal Ethics Committee in place yet to process it. But when Kelsey was asked if Lynn now approved of him bringing up the matter in the complaint, he replied,...

NASHVILLE - Republican state Rep. Kent Williams says he is considering voting for the state's Democratic constitutional officers. Republicans gained majorities in both the House and Senate in last month's elections, giving them a combined 69-63 advantage when a joint session convenes next month to decide who will be the state's comptroller, treasurer and secretary of state.